Planning and prioritization strategies for phased highway mitigation using wildlife‐vehicle collision data

Ford, Adam T.; Clevenger, Anthony P.; Huijser, Marcel P; Dibb, Alan

doi:10.2981/09-051

Cited by 30 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…These results suggest a lack of efficiency on of fences in the study area, as the correct planning of fence and wildlife passages notably reduces road mortality of large mammals [44]. Two separate but not exclusive hypotheses are considered to explain this problem: the characteristics of the fences and the lack of wildlife passages.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Ungulate Vehicle Collisions in a Peri-Urban Environment: Consequences of Transportation Infrastructures Planned Assuming the Absence of Ungulates

Zuberogoitia¹,

Real

Torres³

et al. 2014

PLoS ONE

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Ungulate vehicle collisions (UVC) provoke serious damage, including human casualties, and a large number of measures have been developed around the world to avoid collisions. We analyse the main factors involved in UVC in a road network built in the absence of ungulates, where mitigation structures to avoid UVC were not adequately considered. Ungulate population greatly increased during the last two decades and now Roe Deer and Wild Boars are widely distributed over the study area, but even after this increase, the road network was not adapted to avoid UVC. A total of 235 Roe Deer (RDVC) and 153 Wild Boar vehicle collisions (WBVC) were recorded between January 2008 and December 2011. We randomly selected 289 sample points (87 RDVC, 60 WBVC and 142 controls) separated by at least 500 metres from the next closest point and measured 19 variables that could potentially influence the vehicle collisions. We detected variations in the frequency of RDVC on a monthly basis, and WBVC was higher at weekends but no significant differences were detected on a monthly basis. UVC were more likely to occur at locations where sinuosity of the road, velocity, surface of shrub and deciduous forest area were greater, the presence of fences entered with positive relationship and distance to the nearest building was less. RDVC were more likely to occur at locations where timber forest area increased and distance to the nearest building decreased and WBVC was related to open fields cover and also to the presence of fences. Sinuosity and velocity entered in both cases as significant factors. Major roads, in which the traffic volume is greater and faster, caused more accidents with ungulates than secondary roads. Nowadays, the high frequency of ungulate road-kills deserves a new strategy in order to adapt infrastructure and adopt mitigation measures.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Ungulate Vehicle Collisions in a Peri-Urban Environment: Consequences of Transportation Infrastructures Planned Assuming the Absence of Ungulates

Zuberogoitia¹,

Real

Torres³

et al. 2014

PLoS ONE

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“…), which can usually be achieved if the sections of partial fencing are long enough (Ford et al. , Huijser et al. ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildlife mortality on roads and railways following highway mitigation

et al. 2019

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Wildlife mortality caused by collisions with vehicles on roads is increasingly and effectively mitigated with exclusion fencing and crossing structures, but this solution potentially changes wildlife habitat use and distribution to increase the risk of mortality on adjacent, unmitigated railways. We investigated this potential side‐effect of mitigating the TransCanada Highway, which was completed in sections between 1983 and 2013, on the rate of wildlife mortality on the nearby transcontinental mainline of the Canadian Pacific Railway in Banff National Park. For each transportation class (highway and railway), we calculated collision rate as the number of collisions per year and km for two guilds (carnivores and ungulates) before and after mitigation occurred between 1981 and 2014. We constructed additional models for each transportation class and each of four species groups with adequate sample sizes: elk (Cervus canadensis), other ungulates (family Cervidae), bears (Ursus spp.), and coyotes (Canis latrans). Across guilds, mortality rates declined after mitigation, particularly on the highway (as expected) and most strongly for ungulates. For individual species groups, mortality on the railway for elk was best predicted by year and population size, without the inclusion of mitigation status on the adjacent highway. However, collision rates on the railway increased after mitigation for other ungulates (mostly deer, Odocoileus spp.) while also increasing over time. Collision rates on the railway increased over time for bears, but not in relation to highway mitigation. We found no evidence that the spatial distribution of collisions on the railway changed after highway mitigation, as might be expected from a funneling effect of crossing structures. Our results support and extend previous work demonstrating that exclusion fencing and wildlife crossing structures reduce wildlife mortalities on the highway at this location, and provide limited evidence, for other ungulates alone, that such mitigation may increase mortality on the adjacent railway. Similar analyses are warranted in other locations, particularly mountainous regions, where major transportation features often occur in close proximity.

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“…A total of five studies explored how effective fencing was, and among these studies, reductions in road-related mortality still varied considerably, ranging from 50 to 98% [109,110]. They identified factors that may have influenced the effectiveness of the fencing to be species-specific use, length of fencing, and presence of intersections [109,111,112].…”

Section: Survey Design and Mitigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Road Density and Pattern on the Conservation of Species and Biodiversity

Bennett

2017

Curr Landscape Ecol Rep

137

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The development and presence of roads can reduce landscape permeability, lead to habitat loss, and increase habitat fragmentation. It is these fundamental changes in landscape structure that can have both direct and indirect impacts on the conservation of species and biodiversity. In this review, I examine 215 research studies conducted between 2011 and 2015 that explore the impacts of roads and road networks on a wide range of species. I divided these studies into four main categories: 1) the direct effects of roads on wildlife, 2) the indirect effects of roads on wildlife, 3) the consequences of road networks on wildlife populations, and 4) survey design and mitigation including both innovations and evaluations. I found that the majority of studies (38%) explored the indirect effects of roads on wildlife, including displacement, fitness consequences, and road crossing ability of wildlife. Nevertheless, despite there being a pressing need to understand how existing road networks impact wildlife and how increasing road density may influence local and regional population persistence, only 10% of the studies considered the implications of road networks on wildlife. However, there is an increasing trend towards the development of predictive models that can be used for a better understanding of road network impacts, assess landscape connectivity, and devise mitigation. This review also highlighted the continued need to devise and evaluate mitigation measures so transportation authorities and conservation practitioners may be better equipped to address the ecological implications of roads and proposed road development.

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Planning and prioritization strategies for phased highway mitigation using wildlife‐vehicle collision data

Cited by 30 publications

References 23 publications

Ungulate Vehicle Collisions in a Peri-Urban Environment: Consequences of Transportation Infrastructures Planned Assuming the Absence of Ungulates

Ungulate Vehicle Collisions in a Peri-Urban Environment: Consequences of Transportation Infrastructures Planned Assuming the Absence of Ungulates

Wildlife mortality on roads and railways following highway mitigation

Effects of Road Density and Pattern on the Conservation of Species and Biodiversity

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